Dogs and cats require specific dietary nutrient concentrations based on their life stage. AAFCO lists the nutrient requirements on a dry matter basis and on a unit per 1, kcal metabolizable energy ME basis. The National Research Council NRC also published nutrient profiles for dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens last published in NRC uses the following life stages when listing nutrient requirements:. However, neither AAFCO nor NRC recognizes that nutritional requirements may change in healthy, older adult dogs and cats, Research shows that the adult maintenance life stage for nutrient requirements is not a monolithic life stage applicable to any age of adult dogs or cats.
Instead, the adult life stage must be divided into life stages such as young adult, mature adult, and geriatric or super senior life stages to adequately address the differences in metabolic and physiologic changes occurring as adult animals age 1 , 2.
In higher-income countries, nutritional diseases are rarely seen in dogs and cats when owners feed a good-quality, commercial, complete, and balanced diet or a homemade diet formulated by a Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist. Nutritional problems occur most commonly when dogs and cats are fed unbalanced homemade diets and when cats are fed diets formulated for dogs, vegetarian diets, or diets such as grain-free diets that use ingredients not commonly used in pet food or in higher amounts than have previously been shown to be safe.
Cats have different dietary requirements than dogs and can develop nutritional deficiencies when fed diets formulated for dogs. For example, unlike dogs, cats require dietary sources of vitamin A, arachidonic acid, and taurine. Cats also have higher requirement levels for some amino acids, such as arginine, and the vitamins niacin and pyridoxine vitamin B 6.
Dog or cat foods and homemade diets derived from a limited number of food items are often inadequate. For example, feeding predominantly meat or even an exclusive hamburger and rice diet to dogs or cats can induce calcium deficiency and secondary nutritional hyperparathyroidism. Feeding only liver can induce vitamin A toxicity in both dogs and cats. The form in which the food is fed raw versus cooked can impact nutrient availability.
